BRISBANE Lions players have been deployed to speak with their homesick teammates in a last-ditch attempt to convince them to remain with the club.
South Australian Jared Polec and Victorian Patrick Karnezis recently told the club they wanted to return to their home states, while Sam Docherty has agreed to defer a decision on his future.
The Lions, who have announced Justin Leppitsch as their new senior coach, have spoken as a group about getting out individually and attempting to convince the highly rated youngsters to stay with the club.
Co-captain Jonathan Brown said plenty of efforts had been made since the end of the season and the club had not given up hope of preventing the player exits.
"We know the younger players can't leave through free agency, so there's a little bit of time up our sleeve," he told AFL.com.au.
"We'll be doing the best we can over the off season … plenty of guys will be catching up and making it known that they're really wanted players for us and required.
"Certainly a senior coach coming on board will help that case I would have thought."
Brown said the Lions couldn't put their heads in the sand and needed to address the reasons why young players wanted to return home after launching their careers.
"It's obviously a thing that affects the interstate clubs, especially the northern clubs," he said.
"One of those key reasons I believe is that guys have really struggled to get consistent games of footy.
"That helps overcome home sickness when you're entrenched in the senior side.
"We've got to look at some of the factors why that's happening and try and fix it up."
Midfielder Daniel Rich, who has resisted the temptation to return to Western Australia and is now co-vice captain at the Lions, said he found it difficult to balance the interests of the club and the players who want to leave.
He said the Lions could improve next season, even if Polec, Docherty and Karnezis left.
"They're all obviously good players, so you'd think you'd get something good in return if they left," he said.
"I believe we moved upwards this year and made some good inroads, so hopefully that will continue into next year.
"Hopefully those guys are there, but if not there are other good players who can step into their shoes."
